Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Wednesday May 23, 2007

Forgiven. The word is one of the most powerful in our language and also the Bible. Most people, even those with theological training fail to grasp the enormous meaning of the word and only a precious few professing Christians ever enjoy the fullness and peace of forgiveness due to this misunderstanding.

How many books are written and sermons preached in attempts to convince people they are wholly, completely forgiven in Christ? Why so many articles and sermons? Simple. People cannot accept the truth of God's word concerning the fact that in Christ our forgiven sins are banished even to the point of God assuring us that they are no longer even remembered.

When God settled the "old account" through the blood of Christ, He settled it permanently. As the song states, "The records clear today since He washed my sins away when the old account was settled long ago." An old song, and old truth, yet the weight and the antiquity of the truth have not moved from the head to the heart of this generation.

Most of the Bible teaching about forgiveness has to do with those who are already in the family of God. The forgiveness afforded to the drug dealer, the harlot and others is a given that is readily accepted by the professing body of believers and the lost sinner is welcomed by most with open arms and if the sin has been infamous enough the converted sinner has a ready made fortune to be harvested in books and personal appearances, for he/she is a trophy to the particular ministry responsible for such an example of amazing grace. Yes, Marge, the undertone of sarcasm is intended.

One of my favorite bible stories is that of the "Prodigal Son." What a grand story. The son of a wealthy father takes his inheritance and runs off and wastes it. In due time he is in dire poverty, sees the light and arises from the mire of his choices and runs home to daddy, who longingly awaits the return of his son. Sure enough the tough love challenged dad sees the returning son, and runs, not walks, to put his arms around his son, kisses the son and restores him to a place of honor in the family. Poor dad has no concept of the power of the cold shoulder, the reforming ability of simply saying, "Well, son I see you have come to the light, or maybe you have just felt the heat, so I will give you a probationary period and time will tell. Meanwhile you may sleep in the barn. Let’s break this to your mother over time."

Thank God that's not the story line. Oh, I give you the point, the above invented story line is the norm. But then, God's forgiveness never operates in the norm of the world. God's grace is utterly out of this world!!

President Lincoln was asked how he intended to treat the Southerners who were to be welcomed back after the war. Mr. Lincoln replied, "I will treat them as though they had never been away."

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with credit

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